With March knocking on the door, road wins for Arkansas and Oregon pushed the Razorbacks and Ducks into the Field of 68 – they are paired against each other in a First Four matchup in Dayton. Missouri and Minnesota are the other at-large participants in today’s Opening Round games. The revolving door, known as the 2014 bubble, continues to churn.

Nothing new at the top of the bracket: Florida, Arizona, Wichita State, and Syracuse retain No. 1 seeds. In fact, there weren’t many changes – other than some regional adjustments – to the first quadrant (Top 4 seeds). St. Louis did drop a seed line, with surging North Carolina now the final No. 4 seed (No. 16 on the s-curve).

Iowa continues to slide a bit, having lost three straight and 4 of 6 games. The Hawkeyes are not in any danger of missing the NCAA Tournament at this point, but they are at risk of finding themselves in the 7-9 seed range without reversing course. A rather weak non-conference schedule isn’t helping: Iowa’s best non-league wins are Xavier, UTEP, and Notre Dame.

Buckle up for a busy weekend of college hoops. Championship Week is right around the corner.

UPDATED: February 28, 2014

Teams in CAPS represent the projected AUTOMATIC bid based on current standings with RPI as a tiebreaker for teams with the same number of losses. Exceptions are made for teams that use an abbreviation (UCLA, BYU, etc).

Several new bracketing principles were introduced after last year’s tournament. You can read them for yourself at http://www.ncaa.com. For example: teams from the same conference may now meet before a Regional final, even if fewer than eight teams are selected. The goal is to keep as many teams as possible on their actual seed line.

FIRST FOUR PAIRINGS – Dayton (First Round)

Arkansas vs. Oregon | Midwest Region

Missouri vs. Minnesota | South Region

ALABAMA STATE vs. UTAH VALLEY | East Region

WEBER STATE vs. HIGH POINT | Midwest Region

BRACKET PROJECTION …

SOUTH – Memphis

WEST - Anaheim

Orlando

San Diego

1) FLORIDA

1) ARIZONA

16) DAVIDSON

16) ROBERT MORRIS

8) VCU

8) SMU

9) GONZAGA

9) Pittsburgh

Spokane

Spokane

5) Louisville

5) Kentucky

12) Missouri / Minnesota

12) BYU

4) VIRGINIA

4) Iowa State

13) BELMONT

13) NORTH DAKOTA ST

San Antonio

Raleigh

6) UCLA

6) Ohio State

11) Oklahoma State

11) Saint Joseph’s

3) San Diego State

3) Duke

14) GEORGIA STATE

14) S.F. AUSTIN

Buffalo

Milwaukee

7) Kansas State

7) Stanford

10) Xavier

10) Baylor

2) MICHIGAN

2) CREIGHTON

15) VERMONT

15) UC-IRVINE

EAST – New York

MIDWEST – Indianapolis

Buffalo

St. Louis

1) SYRACUSE

1) WICHITA STATE

16) UTAH VALLEY / ALABAMA ST

16) WEBER ST / HIGH POINT

8) George Washington

8) Iowa

9) Arizona State

9) Memphis

Orlando

San Diego

5) Texas

5) SAINT LOUIS

12) HARVARD

12) SOUTHERN MISS

4) CINCINNATI

4) North Carolina

13) DELAWARE

13) WESTERN MICHIGAN

Raleigh

San Antonio

6) Oklahoma

6) NEW MEXICO

11) GREEN BAY

11) Arkansas / Oregon

3) Villanova

3) Michigan State

14) IONA

14) MERCER

Milwaukee

St. Louis

7) Massachusetts

7) Connecticut

10) Colorado

10) California

2) Wisconsin

2) KANSAS

15) BOSTON UNIVERSITY

15) NC-CENTRAL

NOTES on the BRACKET: Florida is the overall No. 1 seed followed by Arizona, Wichita State, and Syracuse.